Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5)

I love the three things I focus on when life gets hard:
- Trust God
- Be Happy
- Work Hard

Trusting in the Lord means that I expect the Lord to fulfill His promises whether now or in eternity.

Choose to be happy in the situation I am in
Work hard doing what the Lord wants me to do.

Letters to Loved Ones

There were two talks in General Conference this April that spoke about letters to loved ones: "Willing and Worthy to Serve" by President Monson and "Was It Worth It?" by David F. Evans.  I also read a news article recently that asked if our social media makes us lonely.

It has caused me to think of my letter writing habits. Also my social media habits. I asked myself if my interactions were meaningful online. Also if my habits in real life are fostering strong relationships. I have three teenagers now. They will soon be out of my home. Am I creating the relationship I want with them as they become adults? Am I investing in my relationship with my wife so it can blossom and bear good fruit?

There is a lady in our ward that has spoken of letters she received from her grandma. There were a lot of them.  They were encouraging to her. She thought she was the only grandchild to receive them.  Her grandma sent similar letters to all her grandchildren.

I want rich relationships with my family and friends. I have decided to write a few more letters to those I love. And make my time in real life more meaningful. I am grateful for the messages in General Conference and the other things that have led me to this.

"Teach in the context of what they are experiencing right at that moment"

"Sometimes the most powerful way to teach our children to understand a doctrine is to teach in the context of what they are experiencing right at that moment." (Cheryl A. Esplin. "Teaching Our Children to Understand" Mar 31,2012)

A wonderful story of teaching a child to recognize the sweet inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

Here is the whole story from 2:28-5:19 in the video.

I’m reminded of a phone call I received several years ago from our daughter, Michelle. With tender emotion she said, “Mom, I just had the most incredible experience with Ashley.” Ashley is her daughter who was five years old at the time. Michelle described the morning as being one of constant squabbling between Ashley and three-year-old Andrew—one wouldn’t share and the other would hit. After helping them work things out, Michelle went to check the baby.
Soon, Ashley came running in, angry that Andrew wasn’t sharing. Michelle reminded Ashley of the commitment they had made in home evening to be more kind to each other. 

She asked Ashley if she wanted to pray and ask for Heavenly Father’s help, but Ashley, still very angry, responded, “No.” When asked if she believed Heavenly Father would answer her prayer, Ashley said she didn’t know. Her mother asked her to try and gently took her hands and knelt down with her. 

Michelle suggested that Ashley could ask Heavenly Father to help Andrew share—and help her be kind. The thought of Heavenly Father helping her little brother share must have piqued Ashley’s interest, and she began to pray, first asking Heavenly Father to help Andrew share. As she asked Him to help her be kind, she began to cry. Ashley ended her prayer and buried her head on her mother’s shoulder. Michelle held her and asked why she was crying. Ashley said she didn’t know. 

Her mother said, “I think I know why you’re crying. Do you feel good inside?” Ashley nodded, and her mother continued, “This is the Spirit helping you feel this way. It’s Heavenly Father’s way of telling you He loves you and will help you.” 

She asked Ashley if she believed this, if she believed Heavenly Father could help her. With her little eyes full of tears, Ashley said she did. 

Sometimes the most powerful way to teach our children to understand a doctrine is to teach in the context of what they are experiencing right at that moment. These moments are spontaneous and unplanned and happen in the normal flow of family life. They come and go quickly, so we need to be alert and recognize a teaching moment when our children come to us with a question or worry, when they have problems getting along with siblings or friends, when they need to control their anger, when they make a mistake, or when they need to make a decision. (See Teaching, No Greater Call: A Resource Guide for Gospel Teaching [1999], 140–41; Marriage and Family Relations Instructor’s Manual [2000], 61.)

An Illness We All Share

Here is a post that has a link to a 2008 talk by James L. Ferrell given at Southern Virginia University.  There is a link there to an mp3 of his talk. He is the author of The Peacegiver and The Holy Secret. I loved this talk.

He speaks about an illness that all humankind shares and how to overcome it. I will give away the end.  The solution is to Come Unto Christ and be healed.

Why is Jesus Important to me?

This seems like such a fundamental question. I am going to try to break down my feelings for Jesus Christ and why He is so valuable to me.

I have felt the consequences of my sin. There have been times when I recognize that I have acted against God's will resulting in the pain and harm of those I love. As I have prayed to know the right thing to do, I have been inspired to how to reconcile myself to God and to those I have offended. When I surrendered to those promptings and asked for forgiveness from the person(s) and from God, I have felt an immediate flood of relief and joy in my heart. It is especially potent when the other person frankly forgives me. It feels so good to be right with what I know God would want me to do. 

From the Book of Mormon, the New Testament and elsewhere in the scriptures, I have learned about the fall of Adam and how sin came into the world. I see this life as a chance to choose between right and wrong with only faith and my conscience (or light from God) to guide me. As I have followed that light I have been filled with joy.

That light of God comes from Jesus Christ. He was chosen before the world was created to be our Savior. We all agreed to come from God's presence into this world, so we can grow to be more like our Heavenly Parents. From Jesus comes all Good. He created the earth. All the good you see in this world comes from Him.

Jesus lived a perfect life. He came to earth as the physical son of Mary and of Heavenly Father. Because of that he had power to lay down his life and to take it up again. Because he was the son of Mary, he was subject to the normal ills of life. He grew up as a normal child.  Only he did not choose evil.  Not even once. 

At the end of his life he suffered for our sins. In a garden, he bled from every pore as he willingly allowed himself to feel the consequence of every sin ever committed. Not only sin, but every pain and heartache ever felt by any one on earth or that would ever be felt. He was able to withstand this because he is the Son of God. He was tested to the limits of his abilities. And He succeeded!  In all this pain He never sinned. He died for our sins and then lifted himself up on the third day. He lives again! And because he did, every person will live again in a perfected body.

Why is Jesus so important to me? He is everything that is Good. He has blazed the path for me to be joined forever to that Good if I only will. 

General Conference First Impressions

Here are some first impressions from General Conference.

David S. Baxter on Sat Afternoon
Single mother of 7 children. She had gone across the street to deliver something. As she left she heard several things from her children. “Mother, I need to go to the library. I need poster board tonight” The single mother said a prayer. “Father can I come and stay with you if only for tonight?” She seemed to hear an answer from above “No, my little one, you cannot come to me but I can come to you”

Deiter F. Uchtdorf Sun Morning
"Don't judge me because I sin differently than you"
Forgive others and ourselves.  Remove the scales of resentment.

President Packer
Make the church family friendly.  Make time for family.
Sometimes he hears someone say to him “Wouldn’t it be nice if”, The answer is almost always no. The next thing that comes after this phrase would almost always take time away from the family and not return a greater value to those involved.

Jeffrey R. Holland
Avoid envy Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20). Do not hold grudges. Set them free and be free myself.
The thrill of being merciful is what God loves most about being God.
There is no place low enough where the light of Christ cannot reach.

Larry Y. Wilson
Wise parents prepare their children to get on without them. Avoid compulsion as a leader.  Story of his daughter who wanted to play soccer on Sunday

Sister Esplin
Create an atmosphere where children can feel and recognize the Spirit
Story about Ashley. Ashley prays to ask her brother Andrew to help share with her. As she prayed she started to cry. She felt the influence of the Holy Ghost.

D. Todd Christopherson
The bright dawn of the first vision. The importance of the doctrine of Christ

Donald L. Hallstrom
Can I be active in the church and not active in the gospel?

Elder Paul E. Koelliker
Love one another - Missionaries knock on a door and a man opens the doors and says, “I told you not to come back, I said you you did it would not be a pleasant experience.”  The missionaries left.  As they did the older missionary put his arm around the other as an expression of comfort.  The man has been watching through the door to make sure the missionaries understood and took his message.  He expected them to make light of his curt response.  When he saw the expression of love his heart was softened.  He opened the door and asked the missionaries to come back and share their message.

Thomas S. Monson Sun afternoon
The spirit of contention is of the devil. Settle any differences I have with others.

Richard G. Scott
What he does to increase his ability to receive inspiration and revelation.
I fast. I pray to find and understand scriptures.
That process is cyclical.
Cautious with humor, be wary of loud laughter, a good sense of humor helps revelation.
Careful, quiet speech. Aided by good health, exercise, adequate speech.
Revelation given in a dream, strive to capture the content immediately.
Sacred feeling.  People we have great respect will teach us. God will use them so we know we can trust the message.
Messages must be protected from loss or intrusion by others.

David F. Evans
Share the gospel naturally and normally

Julie B. Beck
Align ourselves with the vision of the prophets

Thomas S Monson Sun morning
Wall of skepticism crumbled
Jesus calls, “Come back, Come up, Come in, Come unto me."

Ulisses Soares
You can’t be right by doing wrong. You can’t be wrong by doing right.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked.  Be not weary in well doing.

Russell M Nelson
Elder Nelson wondered about a tropical fish in a fish tank. He asked “Do you know who feeds them? “
“I do”
“Have they ever thanked you?”
“Not yet”
Some live in this life without thanking or acknowledging the God that gave them life.

President Monson Sat morning
**Oppose evil wherever it is found

He quoted Joseph Smith, "The truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." (JosephSmith.net History of the Church, 4:540)

Quentin R. Cook
“Be in tune with the sacred music of faith” It is not up to us to judge.
“Have the courage to refrain from judging” Pres Monson
Do not be too judgemental. Mistakes that are foolish but not sinful.

Unto but not Necessarily Into

A great lesson on what moral agency is and why God prizes it so.

Nephi taught, “When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.” Elder David A. Bednar noted the use of the word unto: “Please notice how the power of the Spirit carries the message unto but not necessarily into the heart. … Ultimately, … the content of a message and the witness of the Holy Ghost penetrate into the heart only if a receiver allows them to enter.”  

Why just unto the heart? Individual agency is so sacred that Heavenly Father will never force the human heart, even with all His infinite power. Man may try to do so, but God does not. To put it another way, God allows us to be the guardians, or the gatekeepers, of our own hearts. We must, of our own free will, open our hearts to the Spirit, for He will not force Himself upon us.
("Opening Our Hearts", Gerald N. Lund, April 2008)

Abigail, a Type and Shadow of Jesus Christ

The story of Abigail, Nabal and David in 1 Samuel 25 teaches forgiveness and repentance.

David felt insulted and challenged by Nabal. Nabal's wife, Abigail heard of what had happened and recognized that something bad may happen between David and Nabal. She gathered all that David may have thought was owed him from Nabal and perhaps more. She hurried to meet David who was on the road to get to Nabal.

And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.
...
I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid
...
And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
1 Samuel 25:23-24, 28, 32-33)

Abigail is a type or shadow of Christ in this story. She goes to David and says "forgive the trespass of thine handmaid" She comes between the offender and the offended and takes the role of the offender.  David recognizes that Abigail did nothing to offend him. He sees that she has all the he felt was owed to him. He freely forgives her and Nabal as well.

That is what Christ does for us. He comes between the sinner and the sinned against. He offers to pay the full price. The offender and the offended are offered the most precious of gifts, forgiveness.

And it is not only material recompense Jesus offers. He can heal our souls. He offers the balm of Gilead. We can be made whole. He offers every good gift. He gives all that He has. And asks that we, the forgiven, to do the same.

After All We Can Do

We had a discussion in Sunday School about 2 Nephi 25:23 "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."

This morning, I was listening to "All About You" and album of Kenneth Cope.  It has so many messages that bring my mind to the principle that Nephi was teaching.  I wrote about the mathematics of the infinite and eternal a while back. The balance of faith and works is one of the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ that continues to amaze me.

I also like what Robert Millet says about this passage

Too often we are prone to view grace as that increment of goodness, that final gift of God that will make up the difference and thereby boost us into the celestial kingdom, "after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23). To be sure, we will need a full measure of divine assistance to become celestial material. But the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, is available to us every hour of every day of our lives.

The grace of Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ enables me to keep moving, keep working. I am free from being overwhelmed by the perfect example I am striving to follow. It is miraculous in that I am forgiven of my sins. I do not have to be burdened by the effects of my sin and the sin of others. I am free to progress, to grow, to ultimately become like my Father is. 1